Manjar Blanco (Colonial Milk Custard with Almonds)

History & Origin

Manjar blanco is one of the most distinguished desserts in Ibero-American gastronomy, with a history that begins in medieval Arab cookery (the Persian-Arab 'muhallabiyya', a milk pudding thickened with starch) and arrived on the Iberian Peninsula with the Moors during the Middle Ages. Medieval Spanish and Portuguese cooks adopted and transformed the dish, known as 'manjar blanco' (blancmange), which spread throughout Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a royal banquet dish. With the Spanish colonisation of the Americas in the sixteenth century, manjar blanco arrived in New Spain and was adapted by the nuns of colonial convents, who replaced the original almond milk with the plentiful cow's milk from Novohispanic haciendas, and added orange blossom water and Mexican vanilla. The result was the Novohispanic manjar blanco: sweeter and more fragrant than its European ancestor, served in Talavera vessels or decorative moulds dusted with cinnamon and flaked almonds. In present-day Mexico, manjar blanco survives primarily in the artisan sweet shops of Puebla, Oaxaca and Mexico City, where it is sold as a comforting dessert evoking colonial cooking. It is a close relative of arroz con leche, vanilla custard and almond pudding.